Rad: The 1980s Shortcut to ‘Totally Awesome’
Summary: Surf/skate culture compressed “radical” into the era’s fastest compliment.
In this post:
- What “rad” means and where it came from
- How people used it in the 1980s
- Modern equivalents and pop-culture examples
- Related slang to explore next
What does “rad” mean?
“Rad” meant awesome—frequent in boardsports, arcade scenes, and teen movies.
How it was used in the 1980s
“That trick was rad,” “Rad mixtape”—a universal upvote of cool.
Modern equivalents
• awesome
• epic
• cool